Beatrice Butchko Looks After Miamidade Children As Judge In The Eleventh Circuits Juvenile Division

A key part of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, which serves Miami-Dade County and is the largest in the state, is its Juvenile Division’s Dependency Court, whose mission is to protect abused or neglected children and seek to keep families together.

Presiding over the court since January on the appointment of Gov. Jeb Bush as one of 77 judges in the judicial circuit’s six divisions is Beatrice Butchko, who began her legal career with admittance to the Florida Bar in 1989.

She started out as an assistant state attorney prosecuting criminal cases and later turned to private practice in the civil field before applying her experience and compassion to her new role on the bench.

She has served as special counsel to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission and as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches pretrial civil litigation.

Judge Butchko was interviewed by Miami Today international editor Michael Hayes. This is an excerpt from the weekly profile article published in Miami Today. To read the entire article in full, order this issue or subscribe to the print edition of Miami Today.